Just had the dreaded termination email

Well, i've just had the dreaded email, the one that says 'your account has been terminated for illegal clicks'. I've had a Google Adsense account for about 2 years, building up from cents per day to $5-6 over a portfolio of 10-12 websites. Most of my page impressions come from my forum, but that has a low CTR. Of the other sites I have, there is a low visitor/high CTR site which is extremely erratic (it's not really well known) and lots of others in between. I've certainly not clicked my own ads though, and never encouraged anyone else to do so. I've been careful to conform and that's why this is such a shock.

Last month I had to make big changes to my forum because I was being targetted by scripting hacks. I changed the software of my board, and also this meant the url changed too. The original forum was quite heavily indexed in Google, so I used .htaccess to send visitors to the new url. The old board is never displayed, but it's only just occured to me that it still had adsense code on it and it may be construed as trying to inflate the impressions.

This is the only thing that I can think of that Google might view as a transgression, because after 2 years I thought I was doing quite well, without any problems or warnings. I've never exceeded $200 in any month, but have only really got over $100 since Christmas.

I've written to Google telling them of the forum move and the url forwarding, but I'm not over optomistic as their termination email sure does sound final. I've lost a balance from last month ($193) and $93 this. I feel so helpless about this. I hope I get a reply, but I'm really not sure. How often do Adsense reconsider? What are good alternative systems if the worst happens?

 

Well good luck with the reply and hope they would bring back your account and earnings.

 

Thanks, I'm quite upset about this. The email (buried in lots of spam) was eventually found, but the first I knew of it was a blank space where the ads usually are and I couldn't log into my stats page. I feel stupid for not removing the adsense from the other site before I put the .htaccess re-route on, but can't even be sure this is the cause of it all.

If I get a reply I'll let you all know.

 

it makes my stomach hurt every time a read a thread like this!

please keep us updated!

 

Well, I put everything down in an email to Google about 10 days ago and I've never heard a peep from them, so I may as well forget about Google Adsense and go somewhere else.

It would have been nice to find out exactly where the alleged invalid clicks came from, but it doesn't look like I'll ever find out.

Is YPN available to UK publishers yet?

Dave

 

About 7-8 months ago I was terminated. I emailed them every week religously and after 2-3 months they finally responded and re-instated my account.

Don't give up *if* your innocent of any TOS breach.

 

question: when changing the forum software, did you first test it on your local computer? and if you did, did it have ads?

 

Oh man, this hurts...
If I remember correctly, I saw a free software a few days back which kind of hides ads when you are working on your website, so you won't accidentally click them or load them unknowingly.
The website which had it was submitted to my directory.
I used it, liked it but then deleted it because I don't use adsense too much.
Let me check... May be I'll find it.

regards
jeet

 

good luck and don't give up

 

No, I didn't test it. The forum software was changed quickly as hacker traffic was starting to affect the MySQL database. A note was put out to the users containg the new url, then the .htaccess file was used to redirect any users to the new site. After about 3 weeks I installed the Adsense code on the new forum software, so there was a period where GoogleAds were still on the old boards but never seen by users.

Dave

 

Fryman is suck a knobhead.
I hope it works out for you mate.

 

Fryman,
My thoughts exactly. I wish someone could go through all the "I did nothing wrong but Google banned me" threads and find out how many are actually legitimate. I would say that nine out of ten times, the individual did something to break Google's TOS, but would rather blame Google for their problems.

 

hmm same banning again google should have some concern for there publishers neforum mate keep the faith dont give up keep mailing them publishers get them all the business they want you as well as much as you want them if its not ur fault there is no reason for you to pay for it keep telling them about this.

 

I would like to know how many are innocent. I am worried sick on a daily basis that google will ban me. Especially right now as I have $600 from last month and $700 so far this month.

I just launched a new site and spent some on advertsing to make it successful. I would hate to loose that $1300.

 

thewindmaster,

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. As long as you follow the TOS, you should be find. I have an investing blog that went from making no money to over $1000 in two months, and then back down again (due to my coverage of a stock contest). The point is, my CTR and page impressions were all over the place, but never once have I received any type of warning or concern from Google. When it comes down to it, the majority of people that get banned click their own ads. As long as you don't do that, you shouldn't have to worry.

 

I was in a similar situation a few weeks ago. All of a sudden I got an email saying my account had been terminated and i hadn't even earned $5 in about 5 days, which was the most shocking part. I appealed, but they still said there were fraudulent clicks. The only thing I can think of is that I had been working on my site for a few days with the ads in place, which probably made it look like I had been inflating page impressions. My bad there I guess, but it still sucks.

 

EVERYBODY works on their site with ads running. I can safely say that was not the reason for getting banned..

 

If the story you narrated is true and your account is 2 yrs old with the history you stated .. u will get your account back in sometime.

Best of luck.

 

Yep, that's exactly the way it happened. I've been working away, keeping my nose clean for two years and had gradually built up from the odd cent to $100-200 months. Then out of the blue comes the email. They clearly think that some dodgy clicking was going on, but like all Adsense publishers my clicks/visits varied considerably with traffic/conditions. There were no outrageous peaks and no cheating on my part, I had too much to lose. It had been a slow process getting there, but it was starting to become worth it.

Google have actually paid me the $193 from two months ago, but last month's balance probably won't be seen. I feel hard done by and a bit deflated by it all to be honest. I feel helpless and at the mercy of the big corporation, just when I thought things were looking quite rosy.

Dave